Canning Love

With all my recent posts on gardening, and a *little* bit of experience under my belt with canning and preserving, I know well enough to expect a lot of busy work putting up all the food we hope to harvest.  With that big task comes a need for jars - LOTS of jars!  To avoid paying retail prices for jars in the thick of harvest and canning season, I have been looking high and low at thrift shops and some garage sales as well as advertising on Freecycle.   I've managed to find a few here and there but yesterday... oh MY...  I hit the jackpot!  

Imagine my surprise when at the thrift shop, I rounded the aisle to the housewears section and clapped eyes on the biggest lot of canning jars I have ever seen in one place at one time.   I tried not to get too excited, thinking maybe it was a selection of miscellaneous jars saved from store bought foods, but I was pleasantly surprised when I poked through the boxes to discover that ALL of the jars were indeed canning jars!  Not *just* canning jars, but my favourite old canning jars, beautiful and stunningly elegant in their vintage design.  Dominion, Gem, Improved Gem, Canadian Jewel and Mason. Such pride in those names!  Pride evident with "Made In Canada" proudly displayed on the front under each brand name.   I'm in canning jar love.... imagining them full of green beans, tomatoes,  spaghetti sauce, salsa, jams, relishes, pickled veggies.....  the list goes on.

Can you guess what I paid for them?  To give you an idea of current prices, a dozen new pint jars sells for around $15.00 CAD here.   Quart jars must be even more but I've never bought them new.

Here's the tally of what I bought:

11 very small jars that hold 4oz (perfect for gifts of red pepper jelly, etc)
17 jars that hold 1.5 cups (what imperial size is that?)
13 pint jars
35 quart jars
10  2 pint jars (1/2 gallon each)

What I paid for all them?   Just under $15.00 CAD!

What a great investment in our stockpile ~ I am SO pleased to have found so many useful jars for that price.  I'm excited to use them, hopefully bringing life once again to those lovely old jars that have once held many a lovingly preserved harvest.